Jerusalem, May 25: Israel urged the Palestinians to pursue economic peace with the Jewish state and to avoid any steps which would harm its development.
“The Palestinian Authority needs to choose if it wants peace and an improved standard of living, or if they want further collisions and to eternalise the conflict,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his right-wing Likud party.
“Israel wants peace with the Palestinians and an increased standard of living (for both peoples), to reach a real agreement that gives security and prosperity,” he said.
Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor, a member of Netanyahu’s cabinet, also accused the Palestinians of shooting themselves in the foot over a campaign to boycott products from Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“We do a lot to improve their economic situation. At the same time, they make their economic life more difficult,” he told reporters in Jerusalem.
“What we need to see is more economic cooperation, more economic growth. What I see in the boycott is just the opposite,” said Meridor, who is also Minister for Intelligence and Atomic Energy.
Last month, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas approved a law banning trade in goods produced in settlements after a months-long campaign that has featured the public burning of products.
Those found guilty of trading in settlement goods face two to five years in prison and fines of up to USD 22,000.
The Yesha Council, the main settlers’ organisation, has decried the campaign as “an act of terrorism and ill will”.
Netanyahu focused his remarks on Palestinian efforts to prevent Israel’s acceptance into the prestigious Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
“This is an interesting test case for us because the Palestinian Authority opposed our acceptance until the last minute,” Netanyahu said.
“This is particularly stark given that in the last year we have removed hundreds of roadblocks to allow greater freedom of movement and trade in the Palestinian Authority and worked to encourage investment.”
Israel is to be formally accepted into the OECD at a ceremony in Paris on Thursday.
Netanyahu did not mention the boycott, but said he hoped the Palestinians would “choose the right path in the near future”.
The OECD coordinates economic policy among the leading industrialised nations, and its members represent an unofficial list of the most developed countries.
-PTI